With the end of 2025 fast approaching it’s time to turn our attention to the final G1 race of the Australian racing year, and the last of the “big three” at the Ascot Pinnacles carnival - It is of course, the $1.5 million Northerly Stakes run over 1800m at WFA, and this year marks its 50th running.
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This has been a race of many names, inaugurated as the Marlboro 50,000 in 1976 and won by George Hanlon's budding champion and future Cox Plate hero Family Of Man, as a three year old. He would win it again two years later.
It was the Western Mail Classic when the immortal Kingston Town thrilled the Ascot crowd to win in 1982 and eventually, from 2007 until 2022, the race would proudly bear his name.
Before then it was known as the Rothwells Stakes, the Winfield Stakes, and (forgettably -or at least let's try to forget) the Beat Diabetes 2 Stakes and the Fruit ‘N ‘Veg Stakes.
Thankfully, the Kingston Town Classic restored some sense of history!
The race would still be named for The King, if not for the career of a local born legend of such rare talent that he became worthy of dethroning the three time Cox Plate winner, and claiming this Perth G1 as his own.
Since 2022 the race has honoured.
Northerly, the great “Fighting Tiger” from the West.
It attained G1 status in 1979 and has never been in danger of losing it. Past winners include:
Family Of Man (twice), Stormy Rex, Mighty Kingdom, Sovereign Red, Kingston Town, Bounty Hawk, Importune, Military Plume, Vo Rogue, Better Loosen Up, Summer Beau (twice), Old Comrade (twice), Niconero (twice), Blevvo, Modem, Early Express, Megatic, Sniper’s Bullet, Playing God (twice), Luckygray, Perfect Reflection, Stratum Star, Arcadia Queen, Regal Power and Amelia’s Jewel.
Northerly, ironically, never ran in the race because he was too busy winning G1s in Melbourne - after bolting in by three lengths in the Railway as a four year old, his first win at the highest level.
The great son of Serheed was born at WA's Oakland Park Stud without a pulse and with less than textbook conformation. Yet within his fragile little body, that tigerish spirit was burning bright from the very beginning.
From his inauspicious start in life Northerly rose to heights achieved by only by the greatest.
“Norton” as his breeder Neville Duncan affectionately called him, was trained by Fred Kersley Snr and would eventually retire with two Cox Plates, a Caulfield Cup (in which he carried topweight and became only the third horse in history to do the Caulfield Cup-Cox Plate double), two Australian Cups and four more G1 victories from 37 starts which earned him more than $9 million in prizemoney.
It was a sad moment indeed for racing fans when Northerly aged just 15 and old Vo Rogue at the grand age of 26, died within a week of each other in 2012.
Old “Vo” had trekked out west and predictably made mincemeat of the opposition to win the G1 Northerly when it was the Kingston Town Classic in 1988.
When Kingston Town won in 1982, nobody could know it would be his last victory and the last race he would ever contest.
He arrived in Perth off the back of what was probably the most gutbusting run in an entire career that had known many. The1982 Melbourne Cup!
For fans of The King ( ie.all of us) that unforgettable Cup still hurts to watch.
Kingston Town had just won his historic third Cox Plate and jockey Peter Cook, standing in for suspended pilot Malcolm Johnston, had made no secret of the fact that the horse had never travelled at The Valley, was feeling a lot of pain from his ever-troublesome sesamoids but somehow - somehow - had found the will to win.
Now here he was fronting up for the world's toughest two mile handicap on a flint hard Flemington track, and he would be lugging 59kg.
“ Miracle Mal” Johnston was back on board, but what was about to transpire - far from being miraculous - would come to be viewed as one of the star hoop’s most ill judged rides.
The Cup favourite that year was The King’s stablemate Just A Dash.
Johnston's tactics on Kingston Town backfired, and he was to bear the full brunt of heartbreak and outrage from racing fans.
Fortunately for Mal, the social media era was still a thing of the future!
Johnston's decision to propel Kingston Town to the front early in the straight left the great horse an absolute sitting duck.
“Wait for the Clock Tower!” Even those who never get any closer to a racehorse than their local TAB screen can recite this piece of Cup lore, reverently passed down through the punting generations. You don’t go early in a Melbourne Cup!
But Mal went early.
The fact that his decision failed by mere inches after 3200m worth of anticipation only made watching the result all the more unbearable.
The crowd screamed encouragement to their champion as Kingston Town galloped towards the post.
The great son of Bletchingly tried to lift as the Caulfield Cup winner Gurner’s Lane with 3kg less came up along his inside. Kingston Town had drifted out, he was tired. He strove ever onwards as the winning post neared - and for one delirious moment it looked like he would claim this most unbelievable triumph of them all!
But no. In the final microsecond Gurner’s got him.
Racing fans wept, cursed the heartless fates and vilified Johnston’s ride on repeat, but trainer TJ Smith's habitual optimistic chirping wasn’t silenced for long.
He dusted his valiant soldier off, and sent him West.
This was the Kingston Town the Ascot racegoers saw - the battle-scarred old warhorse at the end of his career.
They looked on with awe as he walked around the parade ring, this almost mythical beast from the east.
Of course he won. Not long after, The King broke down, and though repeated attempts were made to return him to the track in the USA and Australia, he never raced again. Those old legs had been through enough!
Like Northerly (and Vo Rogue), Kingston Town rose from nondescript beginnings.
Kingston Town won 21 successive stakes races in Sydney - his record was finally beaten by Winx, who won her last 24 starts in succession and knocked him off his Cox Plate pedestal for good measure!
From 30 wins and 7 placings in 41 starts, Kingston Town won $1,605,790 in prize money, and was the first horse in Australia to pass the million dollar barrier.
His Timeform Rating of 137 was higher than that of Saintly, Might And Power, Makybe Diva and yes, Northerly!
The King was playing happily with a paddock pal in 1991 when he suffered an injury from which he could not be saved.
Kingston Town was one of five inaugural inductees into the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame along with Carbine, Phar Lap, Bernborough and the TJ Smith trained Tulloch.
Northerly took his place beside them in 2010.
